| THANK YOU & HAPPY NEW YEAR |
| Dear Readers, We would like to wish you all a prosperous, productive, rewarding and happy New Year. And to thank you, all of you, for your support that made our work possible in 2016. May the coming year bring with it justice and peace to Palestine and other suffering nations, and wisdom, sanity and unity to the rest of the world. Warm wishes The Palestine Chronicle Family |
| Palestine 2017: Time to Bid Farewell to Washington and Embrace the Globe
By Ramzy Baroud There is no doubt that the UN Security Council condemnation of Israel on Friday was an important and noteworthy event. True, the United Nations' main chambers (the Security Council and the General Assembly) and its various institutions, ranging from the International Court of Justice to the UN cultural agency, UNESCO, have repeatedly condemned the Israeli occupation, illegal Jewish settlements and mistreatment of Palestinians. In fact, unlike the 23 December resolution 2334, the past UN condemnations were far stronger - for some resolutions did not just demand an immediate halt of illegal Jewish settlement construction, but the removal of existing settlements as well. There are up to 196 illegal settlements on occupied Palestinian land, in addition to hundreds of settler outposts. These settlements host up to 600,000 Jewish settlers, who were moved there in violation of international law and, in particular, the Fourth Geneva Convention. But what makes this particular resolution important? First, the US neither vetoed the resolution nor threatened to use its veto power; nor did it even seriously lobby, as it often does to soften the wording in advance. Second, it is the first decisive and clear condemnation of Israel by the UN Security Council in nearly eight years - almost the entirety of President Barack Obama's terms in office. Third, the vote took place despite extraordinary Israeli pressure on the current US administration, on the forthcoming administration of Donald Trump and successful pressure on Egyptian President Abdul Fattah Al-Sisi. Indeed, Egypt delayed the vote, which was scheduled a day earlier, before New Zealand, Senegal, Malaysia and Venezuela stepped up and put the resolution to a vote, a day later. Doubtless, the UN resolution - like all others - remains rather symbolic as long as there are no practical mechanisms to ensure the enforcement of international law. Not only will Israel not respect the United Nations' will but is, in fact, already accelerating its settlement activities in the Jerusalem area, in defiance of that will. The Jerusalem municipality had announced that 300 housing units will be built in the illegal settlements of Ramat Shlomo, Ramot and Bit Hanina while the Security Council members were preparing for the vote on the "legal invalidity" of the Jewish settlements. The Palestinian National Authority, on the other hand, is already celebrating another symbolic "victory", which is readily being marketed to unamused Palestinians as a major step towards their freedom and their independent state. The UN resolution was, indeed, keen on ensuring the two-state illusion is perpetuated further, which is all that the leadership of Mahmoud Abbas has needed to continue to push for an unattainable mirage. With all this in mind, there is a lesson - and a valuable one - that must be registered at this moment: without US backing, Israel, with all of its might, is quite vulnerable and isolated in the international arena. The outcome of the vote was quite telling: 14 Security Council members voted "yes", while the US abstained. The vote was followed by a rare sight at such meetings, a sustained applause, where countries that hardly agree on much, agreed full-heartedly on the justness of Palestinian aspirations and the rejection of Israeli practices. Think about this for a moment: the relentless efforts by Israel and the US to intimidate, coerce and bribe UN members, so as to sideline the international community from the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, is failing utterly. All it took is a mere US abstention from the vote to expose the still solid international consensus regarding Israel's illegal actions in Palestine. In an emblematic sign of hope, the vote brings to a close the year 2016, which has been a harsh one for Palestinians. Hundreds of Palestinians were killed during this year in clashes in Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza; hundreds of homes have been partly or wholly demolished and damaged; thousands of acres of land have been confiscated by Israel, and countless olive trees toppled. The next year hardly promises to be any kinder, as the new US administration under Trump exhibits all the signs that suggest US support of Israel will remain steadfast, if not take an even darker turn. Friedman and his ilk have no regard for international law or any respect for US current foreign policy regarding the Israeli occupation, the illegality of the settlements (considered an "obstacle to peace" under various administrations) and is eager to relocate the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. All of this is quite ominous, and the freshly passed resolution should not advance the illusion that things are changing. Nonetheless, there is hope. The resolution is a further affirmation that the international community is unconditionally on the side of Palestinians and, despite all the failures of the past, still advocates the respect of international law. This reminder takes place at a time when the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement is moving from strength to strength, galvanising civil societies, campuses and trade unions all over the world to take a stance against the Israeli occupation. While the rights of Palestinians do not register in the slightest in the radar of US foreign policy interests (which sees its alliance with strong Israel as far more important than the needs of disjointed Arab countries), Palestinians can still forge a new strategy that is predicated on the strong support they continue to garner from the rest of the world. They must not expect their efforts, however sincere, to yield freedom and liberation when they are incapable of forming a united front. This should be done by overhauling the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) and bringing all Palestinian factions under one single platform that caters to the aspirations of all Palestinians, at home and in "shattat" (diaspora). The Palestinian leadership needs to understand that the age of ineffectual American leadership is over. No more lip service to peace and handouts to the PA, while bankrolling the Israeli military and backing Israel politically. The next administration is pro-Israeli administration, absolutely. This may be the clarity Palestinians need to understand that begging and pleading for American compassion will not suffice. If a united Palestinian leadership does not seize the opportunity and regain the initiative in 2017, all Palestinians will suffer. It is time to move away from Washington and to embrace the rest of the world. - Dr. Ramzy Baroud has been writing about the Middle East for over 20 years. He is an internationally-syndicated columnist, a media consultant, an author of several books and the founder of PalestineChronicle.com. His books include "Searching Jenin", "The Second Palestinian Intifada" and his latest "My Father Was a Freedom Fighter: Gaza's Untold Story". His website is www.ramzybaroud.net. |
The UN Must Not Let Resolution 2334 be Squandered
By Daud Abdullah If UN Security Council Resolution 2334 regarding Israel's illegal settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territories is to be worth the paper it's written on, certain tangible steps must be taken. Failure to act will make it worthless. First and foremost, there must be a serious review of Israel's membership of the world body. Ever since it was carved out of the land of Palestine, Israel's leaders have projected their country as something exceptional and thus entitled to special treatment. Israel is indeed unique; it is the only state in the world that owes its very existence to a UN resolution - 181 (II). Its membership was, however, conditional, and remains so. Upon admission to the world body, the new entity gave a solemn undertaking to respect the General Assembly Partition Resolution (of Palestine) and the status of Jerusalem contained therein. This included the requirement to allow Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and land. Israel has repudiated these conditions. The UN is, therefore, well within its rights to suspend Israel from participating in all of its bodies and institutions, as it did with the South African apartheid regime in 1974 and the former Yugoslavia in 1992. After decades of burying their heads in the sand there is now a growing realisation among Western leaders that Israel's exceptionalism is actually a destabilising factor, not only the Middle East but increasingly so in the West. Recent intelligence documents leaked by Edward Snowden revealed that Britain's Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) had warned in 2008 that "the Israelis remain a real threat to the stability of the region..." Inevitably, Israeli officials have poured scorn on the latest Security Council resolution. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office described it as "shameful" and vowed not to abide by its terms. Rightfully, the resolution calls for an end to all "settlement activities" on Palestinian territory occupied since 1967, including East Jerusalem, noting that they have "no legal validity." Though such contempt for the will of the international community is not something unique to Israel, it is precisely such open defiance of the rule of law which has created the current chaos in the Middle East. Failure to act will only make matters worse. The threat posed by Israel's intransigence must not be taken lightly. Already, it has announced that it "looks forward to working with president-elect Trump and with all our friends in Congress, Republicans and Democrats alike, to negate the harmful effects of this absurd resolution." Instead of awaiting this eventuality, the General Assembly must act to suspend Israel from UN bodies. Should this corrective measure fail to bring about the desired compliance, it must then resort to economic, diplomatic and travel sanctions of the kind imposed successfully against the racist South African apartheid regime. Secondly, on the regional level, the League of Arab States must ensure that the current Egyptian government is never again entrusted with any peace initiative on Palestine, even if this means that the organisation's headquarters has to be moved from Cairo. It has become patently clear that the current Egyptian government under Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi cannot be entrusted with any leadership role on the Palestine issue. Without the backing of Israel and the US, the coup leaders who toppled the country's democratically-elected civilian government could not have survived for one week. They are now evidently beholden to the extremist government in Tel Aviv and their ilk; this alone has to be a valid enough reason to question its ability to act independently and resolutely to support the Palestinian people. Furthermore, instead of acting to protect the legitimate aspirations of the people of Libya, Yemen and Syria, the Egyptian regime has pursued policies that can be described as dubious at best and obstructive at worst. In Palestine, Sisi has allowed Egypt to take a partisan stance, supporting one faction against another instead of promoting a genuine dialogue and reconciliation. Its latest shenanigans at the UN, during which it succumbed to Israeli blackmail, must be the final warning that it is not fit to be entrusted with strategic regional interests. The manner in which the vote was taken in the Security Council suggests that non-permanent members are ready and willing to uphold the rule of law, even when it means going against the West and its client states in the Middle East. For the Palestinian people who have long endured Israel's brutal settler-colonialism, the end of 2016 has thus brought some degree of optimism about the future. It is true that they have been down this path before, witnessing the UN take one step forward at critical moments and then two steps backwards thereafter. Their hope will be that 2017 ushers in a clean break from this pattern of international indecision. For the sake of regional stability and global peace, Resolution 2334 must not be squandered. Israel has defied 28 other Security Council resolutions; this must not be the 29th. - Dr. Daud Abdullah is Director of Middle East Monitor (MEMO). |
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Palestine's Achilles Heel: The Begging Bowl
By Vacy Vlazna Poor Palestine - the major Palestinian players, Fatah and Hamas have degraded and set back the liberation movement by crawling with begging bowls to self-interested, absolutely not Palestine-interested, Arab states, and furthermore both are fickle beggars switching loyalties to conform to the US volatile currents in the Middle East. Arab regimes quarter-hearted support for Palestine goes back to the Nakba, "The five Arab states who joined in the invasion of Palestine were Egypt, Transjordan, Syria, Lebanon and Iraq; while the two contingents came from Saudi Arabia and Yemen. All these states, however, only sent an expeditionary force to Palestine, keeping the bulk of their army at home." - Avi Shlaim The Arab coalition was doomed to fail Palestine. Apart from being outnumbered and outgunned by the superior Zionist forces typically, then (and now), the Arabs were disorganised, under-resourced, headed by weak commanders, military incompetence, conflicting national interests and fractured by internal rivalries. These were mainly rooted in the Zionist ally, Jordan's King Abdullah's ambitions to hold sway over a Greater Syria encompassing Transjordan, Syria, Lebanon and Palestine threatening the independence of Lebanon and Syria as well as a potential challenge to the Egyptian leadership of the Arab world. One would expect that the Palestinian leadership would have learnt from the debacle of Arab interference, "[T]he League remained curiously unwilling to allow the Palestinians to assume control over their own destiny.... At Arab League meetings, the mufti argued against intervention in Palestine by the regular Arab armies, but his pleas were ignored. All the mufti asked for was financial support and arms and these were promised to him but delivered only in negligible quantities. It is misleading, therefore, to claim that all the resources of the Arab League were placed at the disposal of the Palestinians. On the contrary, the Arab League let the Palestinians down in their hour of greatest need." -Avi Shlaim The unwillingness of the Arab League 70 year ago has slackened off over the decades into a paralysis that produced the flaccid Arab Peace Initiative described by Marwan Barghouti as, "..the lowest the Arabs have gone in terms of a historical settlement with Israel. The statements of the Arab ministerial delegation to Washington in regards to amending the 1967 borders and accepting the land-swap inflict great damage on the Arab stance and Palestinian rights, and stimulate the appetite of Israel for more concessions. No one is entitled to amend borders or swap land; the Palestinian people insist on Israel's full withdrawal to the 1967 borders, in addition to removing the settlements." Furthermore, 'the issue of the "right of return" isn't even mentioned in the peace initiative. The wording is: "Attaining a just solution to the problem of Palestinian refugees to be agreed upon in accordance with the UN General Assembly Resolution No 194." The statement that the solution will be "agreed upon" points to an Israeli veto on every solution which we find unacceptable." Amnon Reshef The abandonment of refugees is the signal that the Arabs are spruiking the Zionist agenda. These conditions, while untenable to Barghouti, Abbas, on the other hand, in 2016 'rejected any changes to the Arab Peace Initiative, stressing that he is sticking to it as it was approved by the Arab League in 2002'. Warned repeatedly by the intellectual likes of Edward Said, Naji Al Ali, Ghassan Kanafani and Mahmoud Darwish who distinguished the Arab people from their corrupt leaders, Hamas and Fatah know full well the politics of the the dictatorial Arab regimes is a sordid 70 year revolving door of intrigues, hypocrisies, betrayals. Edward Said remarked, "All, however, have decided that they do not trust each other any more than they care strongly for the welfare of their own people (which is to say they care very little)". Take the UAE for example, on July 10, 2014, as Israel blasted Gazan families with airstrikes, UAE pledged $25 million in humanitarian aid. A mere 5 days later, the UAE met secretly in Paris with Avigdor Lieberman 'to discuss how to eradicate Hamas from the Gaza Strip.' By an amazing coincidence, the Saudi and Jordanian foreign ministers were meeting in Paris with John Kerry where it 'was agreed that Israel would execute the military operation against Hamas while the UAE provided the funds....All that was required from Cairo was that it kept the Rafah crossing closed and coordinated with Israel when the assault began.' In 2016, the Arab League including the Sauds, Egypt, Jordan attended, in a show of support, the pie in the sky Abbas/ French Peace Initiative in Paris while Jordan, UAE and Egypt were simultaneously maneuvering (along with Israeli defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman) for Death-Squad-Dahlan to replace Abbas. If that's not enough to make your head spin, the under-the-radar rapprochement steps between arch enemies Dahlan and Hamas, should send you reeling; a reminder that in 2007 Israel's darling, Dahlan and his death squads, under the supervision of US general Dayton, spread terror throughout Gaza, set up torture centers, assassinated Hamas officials and resistance fighters and led the failed military coup against Hamas. Prior to the US-backed war on Syria, Hamas had it headquarters in Damascus, but in 2012, as Syria struggled against US/Saudi armed Islamist forces, Hamas took its begging bowl to Egypt which kept the Rafah border closed in 2014 during the 51 days of the vicious Zionist assault on Gaza. To date, not one Arab regime, Jordan, Egypt, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, UAE, in 70 years, has saved an inch of Palestine from unabated Zionist theft and yet Hamas and Fatah leaders incompetently, stupidly, shamefully overlook the fact that all these regimes are puppets whose strings are controlled by the Zionist/USA alliance. It had been said of George Habash, founder of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PLFP), "He was feared by Arab regimes, and respected and loved in the refugee camps." Therein lies the key to revolutionary success à la Castro - the power lies with the people, within of the comradeship of struggle, within uncompromising focus on liberation and sovereignty. In that spirit, in September Mohamed Ahmed Madi and young Gazan PLFP members formed a Palestinian solidarity committee for the Sahrawi people. The struggle for freedom from violent occupation, theft of land and resources, wholesale government subsidised colonial immigration, exile in refugee camps, a vast Separation Wall, dependence on humanitarian aid, and international betrayal is almost identical in the histories of Palestine and Western Sahara oppressed by the Zionist entity and Morocco respectively . Respect goes to the young Gazans for defiantly continuing their solidarity online with the Sahrawi people and shame on Hamas for banning the group's activities to toady up to King Mohammed VI who is Morocco's Netanyahu clone. It is hard to understand why Hamas would offer a begging bowl of appeasement to Morocco which the US had designated as a major non-NATO ally, which since the 1960's has had public and covert intelligence connections with Israel and Mossad including the assassination scandal of Moroccan opposition leader Mehdi Ben Barka in Paris. Even worse, in early 1967 King Hassan II passed on a secret recording alerting Israel that Arab leaders were ill-prepared for war giving the Zionists the edge for their preemptive strike and victory in the 6 Day War in which the Zionists seized the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, Jerusalem, the Sinai Peninsula and the Golan Heights. While Morocco and Israel ostensibly haven't had formal relations since the First Intifada, Hamas would know that Israel has continued to supply intelligence and weapons, such as Heron drones to aid Morocco's control over Western Sahara. The examples here are but a drop in the ocean of decades of 'diplomatic' bungling by the Palestinian leadership that has obstructed the political rights of the people of Palestine - unlike the stones of resistance hurled by the young at the lethal Zionist occupation. The identity of Palestine's liberation movement in not in Hamas or Fatah, but in the stones and hands that Palestine herself has brought into being. Hands that link together with oppressed brothers and sisters struggling for justice as in Ferguson, with Black Lives Matter, at Standing Rock, with the Aboriginal Tent Embassy, with the millions who protested globally for Gaza in 2014, and who recently joined the global BDS* action against Hewlett-Packard in over 100 cities. Solidarity works. The people power of BDS has thrown the Zionists into paroxysms of panic demanding that Western flunkeys criminalize BDS and criticism of Israel. There's no place for begging bowls in the new order of growing global solidarity with its dignified single-mindedness of purpose grounded in unity. Unity, dignified and resolute - is - the only paradigm that Palestinians must expect their future leadership will uphold to secure Palestine's freedom and the fulfilment of political and human rights, "Isn't it astonishing that all the signs of popular solidarity that Palestine and the Arabs receive occur with no comparable sign of solidarity and dignity for ourselves that others admire and respect us more than we do ourselves? Isn't it time we caught up with our own status and made certain that our representatives here and elsewhere realize, as a first step, that they are fighting for a just and noble cause, and that they have nothing to apologize for or anything to be embarrassed about? On the contrary, they should be proud of what their people have done and proud to represent them." - Edward Said * Boycott Divestment and Sanctions - Dr. Vacy Vlazna is Coordinator of Justice for Palestine Matters and editor of a volume of Palestinian poetry, I remember my name. She was Human Rights Advisor to the GAM team in the second round of the Acheh peace talks, Helsinki, February 2005 then withdrew on principle. Vacy was convenor of Australia East Timor Association and coordinator of the East Timor Justice Lobby as well as serving in East Timor with UNAMET and UNTAET from 1999-2001. She contributed this article to PalestineChronicle.com. |
Kerry: Status Quo in Israel Leading to Continued Occupation Israel's actions in the West Bank are leading towards a one state solution and continued occupation of the Palestinians, US Secretary of State John Kerry warned in a speech today. Speaking at a press conference in which he was expected to slam Israeli policies of settler expansion and occupation of Palestinians, Kerry said: "No one thinking seriously about peace can ignore the reality that settlements post to theta peace." "It's not just a question of the overall amount of land available in the West Bank, it's whether the land can be connected or is broken up into small parcels like Swiss cheese that could never constitute a real state," Kerry said. "The more outposts that are built, the more the settlements expand, the less possible it is to create a contiguous state, so in the end a settlement is not just the land that it's on, it's also what the location does to the movement of people, what it does to the ability of a road to connect one community to another, what it does to the sense of statehood that is chipped away with each new construction."
Kerry added: "The problem obviously goes beyond settlements. Trends indicate a comprehensive effort to take the West Bank land for Israel and prevent any Palestinian development there. Today, the 60 per cent of the West Bank known as Area C, much of which was supposed to be transferred to Palestinian control long ago under the Oslo Accords, much of it is off limits to Palestinian development. Most today has essentially been taken for exclusive use by Israel simply by unilaterally designated it as 'state land'." "In fact almost no private Palestinian building is approved in Area C at all, only one permit was issued by Israel in all of 2014 and 2015 while approvals for hundreds of settlement units were advanced during that same period."
He went on: "Moreover Palestinian structures in Area C that do not have a permit from the Israeli military are potentially subject to demolition and they are currently being demolished at an historically high rate over 1,300 Palestinians including over 300 children have been displaced by demolitions in 2016 alone. More than any previous year." "So the settler agenda is defining the future of Israel and their stated purpose is clear, they believe in one state, Greater Israel, in fact one prominent minister who heads a pro-settler party declared just after the US elections and I quote 'the era of the two-state solution is over', end quote, and many other coalition ministers publicly reject a Palestinian state."
His criticism of Israeli settlement construction was the most vocal. Speaking about the settlements he said the "current Israeli coalition is the most right wing in Israeli history. Policies of this government is more committed to settlement than any in Israeli history, which is leading to one-state reality." Kerry rejected the claim that settlements improve Israeli security and believes that settlement expansion has nothing to do with Israeli security and is in reality an added burden to the country adding that "statehood is chipped away with each new construction" and warned "if they remain where they are there cannot be a viable Palestinian state". In his much anticipated speech before leaving his post as US Secretary of State, Kerry laid out the administration's vision for resolving Middle East conflict and the decision to support the UN Resolution 2334 last week, which declared Israel's settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem as illegal having "no legal validity" and a "flagrant violation under international law". Responding to the accusations that the US helped in drafting UN Resolution 2334, Kerry said that the "US did not draft or put it forward" but insisted that America supported the resolution because it was in everyone's interest. Kerry vigorously defended the UN resolution and rejected criticism "that this vote abandons Israel". "If we had vetoed this resolution just the other day, the United States would have been giving license to further, unfettered settlement construction that we fundamentally oppose," Kerry said. "It is not this resolution that is isolating Israel. It is the permanent policy of settlement construction that risks making peace impossible." He stressed that the two-state solution is the only way to achieve a just and lasting peace between the Israelis and Palestinians, emphasizing that it was the only way to ensure Israel's future as a Jewish and democratic state. Commenting on the dire situation he said that the situation in Gaza tragic and made worse by the closure of crossing. He believes that Israeli's are unaware of the extent of Israel's occupation which is undermining the two-state solution. On Friday, the UN Security Council adopted a resolution demanding Israel to halt settlement building and expansion in the Palestinian territories. The resolution, which was co-sponsored by Malaysia, New Zealand, Senegal and Venezuela, was passed by a 14-0 vote after the United States abstained. As a response to the resolution, Israel and it's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has pledged to conduct 'revenge demolitions' of Palestinian homes; approved building some 5,600 housing units in East Jerusalem for illegal settlements; cut funding to five UN institutions worth $7.8 million; threatened to directly target UNRWA with Trump's help; and recalled it's ambassadors from Senegal and New Zealand. (MEMO, Social Media) |
Israel advanced the so-called "Facebook bill" that would allow Israeli officials to force the social media giant to remove certain content through a court order... Dec 28 2016 / Read More » / Edit / Hours after Israel's Jerusalem municipality cancelled plans to vote on approving construction of hundreds of new Israeli settlement units in occupied East Jerusalem, Jerusalem's city... Dec 28 2016 / Read More » / Edit /By Ralph Nader The Trumpsters are coming to town-led by a failed gambling czar, corporate welfare king and major tax escapee-and they are hell bent on... Dec 28 2016 / Read More » / Edit /Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Sunday has reportedly begun the process of limiting diplomatic relations with countries that had voted in favor of an anti-settlement... Dec 27 2016 / Read More » / Edit /By Ramzy Baroud There is no doubt that the UN Security Council condemnation of Israel on Friday was an important and noteworthy event. True, the... Dec 27 2016 / Read More » / Edit /The National Centre for the Defence of Land and Settlement Resistance published a report, detailing Israeli settlement activities in the West Bank. The report stated... Dec 27 2016 / Read More » / Edit /Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal has urged Israel to implement the recently-passed UN Security Council resolution demanding a halt in illegal settlements in occupied Palestinian territories.... Dec 26 2016 / Read More » / Edit /Israel's Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman ordered the termination of all non-security related coordination with the Palestinian Authority (PA) of Mahmoud Abbas on Sunday in response... Dec 26 2016 / Read More » / Edit /Israel has summoned ambassadors from Senegal and New Zealand following their support for a UN resolution condemning Israeli settlement building in the occupied territories. On...
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